For those of you who haven’t been to a movie in the theater with me yet, I have a very trusted and accurate system for judging if the film will be good or not. I follow the previews before the film. I award one point for a good trailer. I deduct one point for a trailer for a movie that I wouldn’t want to see, or runs counter to the movie’s genre. For example, if there was a romantic comedy trailer right before an action film, I’d give the movie a -1, even if the romantic comedy trailer seemed good.

Here were the trailers:

Jack the Giant Killer – this was not a good start. It’s a mixed live-action, CGI animation Jack and the Beanstalk story. Lame. -1

ParaNorman – at first I wanted to hate on this animated movie about a little kid who can communicate with the dead. However, as the trailer rolled on I thought it was pretty cute and had some potential. I don’t give zeroes, although maybe I should start, so I gave ParaNorman a +1.

Expendables 2 – instant +1. If I could give multiple pulses I would, especially for when a lady sitting a few rows over had an O when Chuck Norris showed up.

Total Recall – I hate remakes, but this is one of my most favorite Schwarzenegger films. While Arnold was the star of the original the story, Total Recall is pure Sci-Fi and shouldn’t rely on the big man’s action hero presence to carry it, unlike Conan. The preview looks really, really good and it was my favorite of the bunch. +1

The Watch – still a +1 reaction to a potentially very funny film starring extremely funny man Richard Ayoade.

Bourne Legacy – I don’t know much about the Bourne book series, and so watching a trailer wherein the namesake doesn’t seem to appear left me non-plussed. I guess if you like the series you might be excited about this. Again, no zeroes mean I have to give it a +1 or a -1, and there was enough action in the trailer to earn it a positive rating.

Hobbit – this movie looks better every time I see the trailer. Less than six months to go to the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. +1

The Campaign – I understand trying to inject some levity in an American election year, especially since I believe that no matter who wins the country is in for a downturn. However, this movie looked over the top and stupid, and I quickly jotted down “-1” on my scratch paper.

Total score: 4

That’s a very strong result, and overall the 6/8 score is about how I’d rate The Dark Knight Rises. There were some unrealistic plot devices and some weapons / technology continuity that really bothered me, but overall I felt that it was the best story out of the three, even if the movie wasn’t really about Batman.

The most interesting thing to me about the film is that it dealt with the social and cultural ramifications of having a resident super hero in town. The end of the second Batman movie apparently heralded an age of low crime in Gotham City, and so the story had the theme of: what do you do with your warriors when the war is over? It’s a very old, important topic that is especially relevant now that our men and women are returning home from war.

I enjoyed The Dark Knight rises because it was an interesting film, and it was just a bonus that Batman was involved. The character’s presence is more like the heart, and the rest of the characters for the rest of the body that get to do all of the fun stuff. I thought Bane’s Occupy Wall Street to the Extreme™ crusade was a neat vision into what may happen if doomsday preppers get their wish and society collapses.

Overall, I suggest that you see The Dark Knight. If you like Batman or action movies, it’s worth seeing in the theater. We paid $16 a ticket (great googly moogly) and I would not have done so had we not promised Gojira we’d see the midnight showing. I would have loved to “rent” the movie online from Warner Brothers for even half that, and that still strikes me as extravagant.